1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to integrated circuit products and, more particularly, to removable peripheral cards that contain one or more integrated circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the trend for memory integrated circuit (IC) packages to be smaller and their memory density to be larger continues, advancements in packaging integrated circuits are needed. One recent advancement involves stacking multiple integrated circuit dies within a single IC package. Such internal package stacking involves stacking a smaller die on a larger die. Each of the dies is wire bonded to a substrate. This type of stacking has, for example, been used with same function dies (e.g., two Flash memory dies) or different function dies (e.g., one Flash memory die and one SRAM die). Additionally, stacking of two or three dies has been done for stacked Chip Scale Packages (stacked CSP) and stacked Thin Small Outline Packages (TSOP).
Memory cards are commonly used to store digital data for use with various products (e.g., electronic products). These memory cards are increasingly called on to store greater and greater amounts of data. Memory cards normally provide non-volatile data storage, and thus such memory cards are very popular and useful because they retain data even after being powered-off. Examples of memory cards are Flash cards that use Flash type or EEPROM type memory cells to store the data. Flash cards have a relatively small form factor and have been used to store digital data for products such as cameras, computers (hand-held, notebook and desktop computers), set-top boxes, hand-held or other small audio players/recorders (e.g., MP3 devices), and medical monitors. A major supplier of Flash cards is SanDisk Corporation of Sunnyvale, Calif.
In some cases, memory cards have conventionally been provided with a set of test pins that enable the memory card to be tested. Typically, the test pins are utilized at the manufacturing site to test internal portions of the memory cards. However, after the memory cards are tested and ready for distribution to end-users, the test pins should not be exposed to the end-users. In the past, these test pins have been covered by a plastic housing of the memory cards which is relatively expensive to manufacture. More recently, for memory cards that have test pins that are otherwise exposed, a label has been provided over the test pins. The label is effective at shielding the test pins from electrostatic discharges. The label is also effective to hide the test pins. However, the label does present some disadvantages. The application of a label to a memory card is a time consuming processing operation. In addition, the labels can be a relatively expensive part to the overall memory card. Still further, since memory cards are typically inserted into and removed from slots in consumer electronic devices, the memory cards need to reliably insert and eject. Often, the ejection process is mechanically assisted (e.g., spring-biased assistance). However, in some cases, the label can present substantial friction that partially impedes the spring-based ejection of the memory card. The label also presents sharp edges that can also impede removal or ejection of memory cards.
Thus, there is a need for improved approaches to manufacture memory cards having test pins.